Vol. Ill, No. 2 
NEW YORK AND SYRACUSE 
June J 901 
Hereafter the main office of the Keramic Studio Publishing Company -will 
be at Syracuse. All communications should be addressed to 
KERAMIC STUDIO PUBLISHING COMPANY, SYRACUSE, N. Y. 
Mrs. Alsop-Robineau's address Tvill be ISO Holland street, Syracuse, N, Y. 
Mrs. Anna B. Leonard <will represent the Keramic Studio in New York at 
her old address, 28 East 23d street. 
UMMER is at hand — the time for storing honey 
for the winter's use. Stop being the busy 
ant, drudging away at your china painting, 
which by June becomes as stale, unprofitable 
and wearisome as rolling grains of sand up 
an ant hill, and become, instead, the busy bee, 
flitting from flower to flower and, seeming to 
idle away the sunny hours, yet spending the most profitable 
time of the year, gaining strength and inspiration and success 
for the future. Even to lie in a hammock and listen to the 
twittering of the birds and the rustle of the leaves and all the 
sounds of growing life about you, and to dream, — to dream 
and wake with that feeling of refreshment and belief in one's 
own possibilities, is invaluable to your winter's work. Often 
the best inspirations for designing come to one in this half- 
dreaming state, when the objective mind, loaded with its bur- 
den of heavy facts, is resting and the subjective mind has a 
chance to run riot and display all the unconsciously gathered 
honey of former hours. 
Plan for this summer to take your portfolio into the 
country with you. Take your water colors, pencil or pen and 
ink, whichever medium is easiest for you to use, and make 
careful drawings of every animate or inanimate object which 
interests you. And when you spend your days looking for 
interesting things, you will be surprised to find how many 
things are interesting which you have never noticed before. 
On sunny days then — make your careful drawing of 
flower or insect or whatever you choose from Nature's gener- 
ous abundance. Make also a careful note of coloring, not 
only in the object itself, but in its surroundings, and note how 
each reacts on the other. For instance, sketch your flower in 
the open air, then in the house against different colored 
grounds, painting not what you know but what you see. For- 
get all you have been told and open your eyes wide to see for 
yourself, and if a flower you have been told is pink or blue 
looks purple or any other color, paint it what it looks, not 
what you have been brought up to believe. And, doubtless, 
when your sketch is made, your friends will say: "What a 
beautiful pink or blue flower that is ; " whereas, if you had 
painted according to your preconceived notion, your sketch 
would have been a failure. And the special joy of having 
discovered something for yourself will be yours. This for 
sunny days. 
On rainy days, take your careful drawings — we hope you 
have made drawings of separate leaves and petals, stamens 
and pistels, calyx and corolla of the flower; or, if an insect, 
head, antennae, legs, body, etc., etc., — decide on the size and 
shape of your design, or if a border, the width and spacing, 
and take your summer's pleasure in arranging and re-arranging 
motifs until you have found a combination that seems to you 
perfect, i, e., which would be spoiled by adding to or taking 
from it one line or form. Then put everything away in your 
portfolio, and do not look at the design for a week or two, 
when the lazy summer weather may have toned and tuned 
your mind so you will see at a glance where you can make the 
last perfecting touch. Then leave it alone till winter. Do 
not overdo, be careful, and try the simplest way of making an 
effect. That will be the truest art. 
If you spend your vacation thus, and stop making money, 
only just enough for daily needs, you will find when you go 
to work in the early fall that you have such a mind and port- 
folio full of ideas that you hardly know where to begin, and 
it only remains to transform yourself into the busy ant again 
to make your winter hours not only profitable but a joy for- 
ever. 
As the expenses of exhibitors at the Buffalo Exposition 
are just twice what they were in Paris, many of the League 
members feel unable to contribute their work. We feel that 
this is a great opportunity for the Clubs to unite together, 
and that the difficulty must be surmounted. If each Club 
would contribute something towards the general fund, the 
expense would then be very little for each. The New York 
Society of Keramic Arts last year raised $400 for the League's 
exhibition in Paris, and there were contributions from Brook- 
lyn and Jersey City. Now why would not each Club in the 
League endeavor to raise a sum, if only $25 ? There is a move- 
ment now on foot to start " Keramic teas " and " musicals " for 
the benefit of the Exhibition fund, which is required outside of 
the mere cost of space. The New York Society is getting up 
a musical, and will have tea cups for sale also. Let each Club 
feel the necessity for doing something to "keep the fire 
alive!" This year there will be an innovation, and the ex- 
periment is worth the trial. There will be some one in con- 
stant attendance to give information, to sell the work, and to 
look after the League's interest. This will all be done in a 
thorough, business-like method, and we urge every decorator 
to do his or her utmost to make this exhibition a success, 
The League has one of the best locations, with the arts and 
crafts, and not with the hodge-podge of a mercantile exhibi- 
tion. It is in the Court, the entire control and decoration of 
which is under the supervision of Mr. Louis Tiffany. Not to 
have the same experience as he had in Paris, where his artistic 
products seemed in the wrong setting, the Buffalo authorities 
have given Mr. Tiffany the entire control of this Court. In 
this area will be the Rookwood, the Grueby, the National 
Arts Club, and the Gorham and Tiffany companies. There 
will be uniform decoration and lettering. It really seems as if 
this were the greatest opportunity the members of the League 
have ever had to bring forward the work. We hope to see 
an exhibition worthy of them. 
